Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Hays County election results in Pork Belly Futures?
A Post-Primary recommendation: Save your money folks and invest it wisely, you're going to need it
Local political commentator Peter Stern takes a brief look at the early results of a few of today's primary races. We'll have more commentary and analysis later.
Send your comments and news tips to online.editor@valleyspringcomm.net, to Mr. Stern at pstern@austin.rr.com, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
State Representative District 45 Democratic Primary
Democrat Incumbent Rep. Patrick M. Rose jumped to an early lead over Andrew H. Backus with 78 percent of the votes in Hays County and looks to hang on to a win. No surprise here, just some disappointment.
GOP Primary Governor's Race
Well, for a governor disliked by the majority of Texans, incumbent Rick Perry showed again he has the 9-lives of a cat by catapulting to a significant early lead, severely overshadowing his two opponents with 52 percent of the votes, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 30% and Debra Medina 10%of the total votes.
This proved to be "a walk in the park" for Perry as he obliterated his rivals – no real surprise here. We can hear the whooping and hollering of the Governor's wealthy campaign contributors, as their 3-term investments were proven safe by tonight's easy Primary victory. They may start shaking again in the few months before November's elections.
Democratic Primary Governor's Race
Former Houston Mayor Bill White took an early formidable lead over fellow Democrats with 73 percent of the votes and held for an easy victory.
Incumbent Governor Rick Perry may have a tougher battle ahead in November with Democratic opponent, Bill White, who ensured he is the strongest Gubernatorial Democratic candidate by far to face Perry in the past decade. If White can not squelch Perry's unprecedented bid for a 4th term in the November election, Texans will be doomed to 4 more years of standard political, social and economic monkey business as usual.
Democratic Primary Race for Hays County Judge
Hays County Commissioner Jeff Barton jumped to an early lead against fellow Democrat incumbent Elizabeth 'Liz" Sumter with 57 percent of the votes and unless Sumter voters bring on a strong challenge, he will cruise to victory.
GOP Propositions 1 through 5
All propositions were approved by voters. Surely no surprises here since Texas voting history tells us that more than 90 percent of propositions on each election are approved by voters. The good news is that all 5 propositions were merely a canvas of questions for GOP voters, so the propositions will NOT become amendments to the Texas Constitution.
Miscellaneous Political Poop
Looks like the infamous former House Rep. Rick Green will win the GOP Primary for Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3 with 44 percent of the votes.
Conclusions
Looks like Texans will continue to have a tough economic climate throughout the year and must look ahead when the possibility of real changes may come to fruition in the regular November elections. It may be the toughest fight Gov. Perry has faced to date when he runs head-on against former Houston Mayor Bill White, who easily won his Democratic Primary.
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16 comments:
Every office in America is for sale to the highest corporate bidder and we're just getting warmed up. Thanks to the Supreme Court's disastrous ruling on campaign financing, the forces of evil are alas unleashed even here in little ole Hays County. Barton and Rose are only the small fry beneficiaries of the unlimited campaign tsunamis yet to come from corporate interests. Rick Perry's BIG BIG money made mincemeat of KBH and he will do the same to Bill White. As for Hays County, expect the troika of Barton-Rose-Conley to pave paradise from stem to stern. Give the Salt Lick its own private taxing district with a lot of help from Rose and a big lift from his buddies Dewherst and Perry? A fraction of voters went to the polls and said, mmmm, OK. Fine. Corporate oligarchies are about to eat us all whole.
All I can say is I voted for the sole Democratic state proposition, which is:
All Republicans who voted affirmative for the 5 Texas GOP propositions must have a brain scan and present an Earth residence ID card the next time they vote.
And too bad for Liz Sumter.
Get ready for it folks, a Tsunami of sour grapes is rolling toward this Blog. It seems that every candidate the Editor and Contributors wanted to win, lost and vice a versa! It was a resounding defeat for most readers that hangout here. All results were as I wished except for maybe the Governor’s race. It was interesting that Debra Medina garnered more votes than K. B. Hutchinson, a sitting Senator. More proof that incumbency is a turn-off to the voters these days. Of course that doesn’t explain Perry’s overwhelming victory. The November election will be interesting to say the least; I’m sure we will see the bitter attacks escalate here.
Merit clearly played second fiddle to machine politics in this election. By every measure, except currying to the special interests, Sumter deserved to win. The Jackal of the East, Barton, was hoisted to victory by a large collection of East Hays County insiders (and a few West side roadies). He must not be allowed to succeed in November. Better a no-nothing like Cobb for county judge than the lies and deceit of Barton and his machine.
What a bunch of hogwash. Sumter lost because of her out-of-touch administration. She wanted development rules that the public didn't. Who out there reading this blog was stupid enough to take money for their vote? Did someone pay you going in or out of the polling place? Then where does the ignorance of this blog get the idea that votes are for sale. Maybe people are smarter than the navel-gazing panty-wastes who write and post to this blog. (Me included.) They know b.s. when they see it, and Backus, Sumter, et al, were ripe for the picking and they are now off to never-never land.
The question is now how will Lameduck Liz govern for the rest of her short tenure? Will she quit and concede her seat to Barton so that he now becomes an incumbent Judge? Nah, that would be too easy for Barton, and too cheesy for Sumter.
Even more simple awareness dictates that the majority of those silent minions who do vote do NOT want change.
They want "things" to stay as they are, albeit even more so, and for my part they are welcome to it.
This election should prove it to all Texans, not just those in Hays County.
Aside from "the tsunami of sour grapes":
Congratulations to all those who won and condolences to those who did not.
P
Anon 3, you have proved Anon 1's point of the paving of paradise "from stem to stern" with your statement that Sumter "wanted development rules that the public didn't". The public you worship are the very interests who will be doing the paving. The rest of the public you ignorantly ignore (those "navel-gazing panty wastes") are the people who wish to protect our natural resources from dense development, water profiteering and increasing pollution - worthy and respectable goals in my view. The winners of Tuesday's election are nothing more than a Who's Who of the blind leading the blind. Sadly, I will be looking for a profligacy of back room deals, patronage favors & jobs gone wild, and a shuttering of open government.
Regarding those "development rules":
They were a sham beneficial to developers, private water companies, and the county. The rules were designed to enslave generations of homeowners to paying taxes with zero services, forcing them to purchase water from private, investor-owned utilities, and prohibiting them from protecting themselves from economic abuse.
The taxes are in the form of being forced to pay whatever rates the utility demands - the county certainly isn't going to provide fundamental infrastructure - but it won't hesitate to tax you for providing zero services.
Those homeowners have to pay more for the property, hidden taxes in the form of "production fees" to HTGCD, and ongoing fees to the privately-owned vendors. What does the county do? Insist that anyone buying a home in a new subdivision be subjected to this. Oh yes, the homeowners won't even be compensated for the water taken from under their property nor will they be permitted to capture any for their own use.
The county's platting rules required developers to provide a statement representing that there was adequate water for the subdivision on the plats. Apparently, that was false so frequently that the county subsequently made a new requirement: Put another statement on the plat warning homeowners to do their own investigation. The county of course would never hold the developer responsible for the representations made on the plats.
All you "conservationists" claiming to be operating for the "good of the community" are usually frauds. What you seek is to take from every member of the community and to give what has been taken to your own cronies. HTGCD and the county aren't "conserving water" for YOU. They have both actively sought under the leadership of Backus and Sumter to TAKE AWAY your water and give it to others to sell back to you for profit at YOUR expense.
A subdivision rule that requires 6 acres for a residential well, but no real minimum acreage if the subdivision is served by a centralized (i.e., developer-owned utility) water system kinda illustrates the fallacy of the logic of conservation. If the theory was that it takes 6 acres per residence for groundwater recharge - then wouldn't simple math dictate that the subdivision must provide a minimum 6 acres per lot if the source was groundwater regardless of whether it was a residential well per lot or a central water system? Instead the 6 acre logic flies out the window as long as you are forced to purchase it from someone that pays production fees to HTGCD.
Do you realize that the "investors" that own these systems are more interested in pushing as much water consumption as possible and will do so utilizing restrictive covenants and HOAs - such as those likewise mandated by the county?
Why was the county involved in such control over water in the first place given that the only such control is supposedly vested in the HTGCD?
Candidate Backus supported the county imposing such a regime to ensure that HTGCD would get production fees from those central water systems (paid for by the involuntary customers). Backus was looking to create a retirement plan with the HTGCD funded by involuntary customers. Sumter supported Backus under theories of "good for the community". Yeah, it was good alright - at least for the developers looking to hold homeowners over a barrel with the private water utilities. (AquaTex, anyone?) Your HTGCD and county leaders did this to you.
Both Sumter and Backus are out and hopefully, the residents (natural persons- not legal fictions) will force the county to restore property rights to the individual residents instead of insisting that residents give them to campaign contributors, private water utilities, HOAs, and developers.
You need to give it up.
As Stern stated, the majority of those who voted want these plans and people to direct growth for the next several years at least.
So be it.
The majority of Texans do not even vote, so they remain complacently willing to leave our direction in the hands of the few.
Little is going to change during the next generation or 2, so get used to it.
There really is no point of promoting change if no one but a handful of Texans want it.
That's just reality. Wake-up and live with it.
Anonymous #5, dear boy, your bull***t property rights propaganda makes good script for windbags Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Rick Perry.
Here in Western Hays County where real men and women reside there is nothing more important than protecting our God given natural resources. Without the proper safeguards in place, we are nothing but a developer's wet dream.
I pray that our next county judge, Bert Cobb, will adhere to the commandments of his God and not the greedy wishes of the crony minions he is sure to attract.
With the primary elections over, plans are already hatching to barter away our land and ground water for high priced imported water and your One-Way property rights arguments.
Your kind of blathering is making it all the easier.
Jeff Barton's bag men and deal makers are hard at work covering their behinds in the likely event that Barton loses in November. His (Barton's) Great Western Rodeo and Magic Show will fail to bridge the deep divide in the party that he has created. He cannot overcome the numbers and discipline of Republicans who will vote lockstep for Cobb. Democrats can credit Barton for handing the county judge seat to Republicans on a silver platter, which was in perfectly good hands with Liz Sumter.
Barton believes he is going to win in November, so get over it.
Cobb has no experience in county politics. I'm not saying he isn't a good candidate, because he is.
Barton has the county's wealthy ghosts behind him and Cobb doesn't.
Period,
Vote for Cobb!!! Give Texas back to the Republicans, where it belongs.
Woof Woof. My tail is wagging for Big Bert. He's so cute in his doctor scrubs. I hope he gives little Bart a big kick in the butt. I'll be telling all my doggie friends to vote for Doctor Bert.
I want to see the 5 Texas GOP propositions that were so easily passed by the good right wing Christian voters get approved for all of Texas.
But don't for one minute think those propositions will prevent your son or daughter from being gay or an addict or a criminal or a high school dropout.
If any of those things happen to your children, it is because you forced them to listen to these meaningless and politically warped Republican "family values" propositions but acted like a hypocrite and blamed everyone but yourself for your venom and anger.
Remember Ted Haggart, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford? I'm sure they would strongly endorse your 5 state propositions.
It doesn't matter what you believe or thing, DL, because most Texas voters WILL approve the propositions, just as they have approved most past propositions. At least 90% of such propositions are approved by the majority of voters.
It is a sign of the mentality of Texans and where the state will remain politically and socially for the next several generations.
The REAL Texas is showing more and more with how voters are leaning here in the heart of Texas.
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